“People seem to either love or hate Apple. In the time silicon.com has been reporting on the company, the comments received on Apple-related stories are always the most animated and the most polarised in their views,” Seb Janacek writes for Silcon.com.
Janacek looks at the best of Apple (in no particular order) – as inspired by years of reading silicon.com and forum feedback on the company:
1. The Mac: Its ground-breaking features are now part and parcel of every personal computer in the world today.
2. Usability: The Mac OS in particular has long been touted as being more user friendly than Windows.
3. iPod: The impact of the product on both Apple and digital music cannot be understated.
4. Innovation: The Mac maker is an agenda setter both for hardware and software. Where Apple leads others follow.
5. Steve Wozniak: He’s an engineering genius, years ahead of his time, whose vision laid the foundation for modern computing.
6. Steve Jobs: Perhaps more than any other CEO, Jobs is synonymous with the company he runs and the thought of the great man stepping aside is enough to give Mac fans and Apple shareholders heart palpitations.
7. Mac OS X: User-friendly, elegant, stable and (so far) seemingly invulnerable to viruses, it has a plenty of good qualities… Windows Vista arrived at the party six years late, clutching a bottle of Blue Nun. [Blue Nun is regarded by some as totem of the kitsch and the tasteless.]
8. Mythology: Apple is the ultimate Silicon Valley start-up story, beginning its life in a bedroom before spilling over to a garage.
9. iPhone: Arriving sometime in the summer, it’s a huge gamble for Steve Jobs and co but I bet it’ll be their next success story.
10. An alternative: Hegemonies change every decade or so, IBM had its time, Microsoft has its, Google might be next but Apple has proved to be the lasting alternative to consumers and a rival to the mainstream players for the last 30 years, due in no small part to the nine reasons listed above.
Much more in the full article, a fun read, here.
Related articles:
Innovative Apple has changed the course of the personal computer revolution many times – April 02, 2006
BusinessWeek: Steve Jobs changed the world three times – with the Apple II, Pixar, and the iPod – October 27, 2004
Newsweek: Steve Jobs’ Macintosh changed personal computers forever – March 02, 2003
